Parish Newsletter

Masses Today

12.00: Colm Conneely, (Lr. Merchant's Road), (Anniv).

AS I WAS SAYING.....

One year in every six, the feast of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) falls on Sunday. It is perhaps the best opportunity we have to make this extraordinary man more widely known. Augustine was recognised as the 'great communicator' of his own day. Here was a man who knew how to seize a congregation's attention and keep it, how to teach the untutored without talking down, how to be a spellbinder without putting everyone into a trance.

Augustine operated in an oral culture. When he presided at Mass, his community of worshipers was quite different from the silent soldiers, rising, kneeling and sitting on cue during today's liturgies. "Picture a standing congregation with a dynamism that's completely different from a seated group. It was the opposite of today's practice," Augustinian scholar, Fr Martin explains. And, if the basilica was packed, Augustine would move from his chair to a spot in the middle of the congregation and preach from there. Martin continues, "There he was close to the people; he could see and hear them. He could tell from their groans, their sighs, their cries, and even their laughter whether or not they were with him."

Augustine's homilies, 396 of which still survive, were recorded by secretaries, thereby preserving his wisdom to this day. His thought and practice dominated the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). Preaching took on a new meaning, rooted in the example of Augustine. The Liturgy of the Word was given a new importance and, within it, the sermon was a given a new name: homily. This was no mere semantic exercise.

Post-Vatican II preachers have made attempts to connect with their congregations. However, they deal with obstacles Augustine never faced. Most churches standing today were built in Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance styles of architecture. Others, designed in the so-called "post-Vatican II" architecture, bear an unsettling resemblance to airplane hangers. It has proved difficult and sometimes impossible for a priest standing in an elevated pulpit to connect emotionally or intellectually with row after row of seated, silent worshipers.

Another issue is the sheer size of today's churches, especially those built to house the suburban mega-parishes. (This is actually one of the issues we have tried to address in the current renovations of the Augustinian). In addition, worshipers who have to contend with clampers and to find parking slots before Mass, are rarely in a receptive mood for the either Word of God or even the words of the preacher!

The homilies everywhere today are sources of deep dissatisfaction. However, Augustine believed that, in the act of preaching, two teachers are at work: the preacher who plants the Word in the ear; and Jesus Christ, who plants the Word in the human heart. We must presume that the latter part of the process continues, at least! Happy feast day!

-Dick Lyng.

By the way.......

FUNERAL OF ROGER OF TAIZE

(Br Roger, founder of the Taize ecumenical community, was stabbed to death as he led Evening Prayer at the monastery on Tuesday 16 August. It is believed that the Romanian woman who killed him was deranged.)

The funeral of Brother Roger took place on Tuesday 23 August at 14.00. Each afternoon, from 15.00 to 19.00, his body was placed in the church of Taizé, so that all who wished could go and meditate close by him.

Eight years ago, Brother Roger designated Brother Alois to succeed him as leader. Brother Alois concluded his homily at his mentor's funeral with the following words: "Since Brother Roger did not want many words to be spoken in churches, I would like to conclude by praying:

God of goodness, we entrust to your forgiveness Luminita Solcan who, in an act of sickness, put an end to the life of Brother Roger. With Christ on the cross we say to you: Father, forgive her, she does not know what she did.

Holy Spirit, we pray for the people of Romania and for the young Romanians whom we love so much in Taizé. Christ of compassion, you enable us to be in communion with those who went before us, and who can remain so close to us. We entrust into your hands our brother Roger. Already he is contemplating the invisible. In his steps, you prepare us to welcome a ray of your brightness.

Now, we are going to sing. Then Cardinal Walter Kasper, representing Pope Benedict, will speak to us, and will celebrate the Eucharist, together with the priest brothers of Taizé." After the celebration of the Eucharist, Br Roger was buried in the monastery grounds.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

CONGRATULATIONS: Teresa O'Connor, formerly of St. Augustine Street, celebrated her 80th birthday with her children, Gerard, Mary, Tommy, Patricia, Micheal and her many grandchildren on Tuesday evening last.

Teresa has been a most loyal friend of St. Augustine's. Born down the road from us, she found it difficult to get away from us. She was always caught either to 'stand in', or to 'help out'! She was housekeeper in the Priory at a time when priests were plentiful and difficult, in the late 1960s and right through the 1970s!

Right up to the time the present renovations began, she was one of that faithful band of "Saturday Flower Women". They looked after the flowers at the various church shrines on a weekly basis. Teresa remains as healthy as a young trout and she enjoys every day of her retirement in her new home in Crestwood.

Congratulations again Teresa, and may you have many more years of rude good health!

WOULD YOU BELIEVE?

Down through history, outlandish happenings have terrorised and fascinated in equal measure. For example the various old Irish 'Annals' have carried astounding but disturbing reports: swallows dying of frost-bite, packs of wolves savaged by a single senile sheep, streams running uphill, the moon howling back at a mad dog, and pigs flying, Icarus-like, towards the setting sun. All of these are unnatural happenings and, even on good days, are liable to unhinge us. Our ancestors saw such unwelcome phenomena as manifestations of 'divine displeasure,' a radical 'revolt of nature' itself against human folly or malevolence.

The world's biggest gathering of researchers and aficionados of the unexplained begins in London at the end of September. More than 1,000 people will attend the Fortean Times' annual Convention. Speakers include Father Lionel Fanthorpe, talking about the weird animals he has encountered during the filming of the Fortean TV series, which he presents.

There will also be an address by Colonel John Blashford-Snell, the explorer who devoted his entire life to searching for the lost city of Atlantis. The Colonel will tell of the extraordinary creatures that frustrated his quest.

Mark Chorvinsky, editor of 'Strange' magazine, will discuss encounters with the Grim Reaper; a photograph of a pterodactyl shot down in the Wild West in 1880 will be shown.

Professor Peter Ackroyd, the post-modernist scholar, will speak to the Shakespearian theme 'the time is out of joint', with special reference to that night when King Duncan's horses 'beauteous and swift, the minions of their race', ate each other in their stalls!

Brian Cody, former manager of the greatest hurling team ever to be assembled, will deliver the keynote address at the Convention. Cody, a keen student of Nostradamus, must be aware of 16th century seer's disturbing quatrain concerning 2005, containing his sole reference to Ireland:

Hun ousts Slav from Peter's chair;
Rats oust cats in Inis Fail.
Patricians everywhere felled.
Even glass eyes weep!